Two Parallel Lines
by KurobaraIto
Summary: Two Parallel Lines. Close but could never meet. She supposed, that was the appropriate term for their relationship.


To Yuiga Nariyuki, the future was not something shapeless that one cannot hold. His family's financial condition gave him no freedom in choosing his shapeless future. To him, his path was clear. He needed to study and reach the top five in order to get a recommendation and scholarship to university. There was no other way.

Day by day, he diligently studied to increase and maintain his grades. There was once a time where his studying did not give him satisfying result but that was a long time ago. After trial and error, he had found a method that he thought was better for him. As a result of that, he was steadily in the top ten of Ichinose Academy ever since he entered the high school two years ago.

The result was displayed in front of his eyes. Yuiga Nariyuki was placed ninth of the entire one hundred or something students on the midterm exam of the second semester of the second year. With a satisfied nod to himself, Nariyuki turned back from the grades displayed on the wall and went back to his class.

He was happy that he could still maintain the top ten rank, but he also was angry at himself because he could not rank higher. He should have been able to do it. But there was still the end of term exam he should face in one and half month. That should be enough time for him to study more and reach a higher rank in the exam.

Not long after that, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch break and start of the next period. The next lesson was World History and the teacher was Kirisu Mafuyu. Now, Nariyuki had never personally interacted with her before, but other students feared her for some reason that he couldn't understand. He followed her lesson dutifully and he never thought that she was scary. Professional, yes, but not scary.

The door was opened, Kirisu-sensei entered the classroom and reached for the podium, her hair swaying in the air. "Everyone, open your book. Let's start the lesson. Now, who can tell me the start of Roman civilization?"

And with that, the school continued as always.

* * *

After school, Nariyuki had planned to spend times in the library to review today's lesson. After that, he was going grocery shopping in the market district because his sister, Mizuki was going to do a group assignment so she would be late and asked him to do it instead.

So Nariyuki hurriedly going to the school library because it would be closed two hours after the end of the school period.

"Nari-chan, you're in a hurry, huh?" His friend, Kobayashi asked him in passing.

"Yeah, gonna review today's lesson. After that I have to go grocery shopping so... later, Kobayashi."

"Later, Nari-chan."

Nariyuki walked towards the library and took a seat on the desk. He opened his bag and began his review of today's lesson. This was one of the things he did to understand the lesson better. What was being discussed? What was his perspective on that topic? What about other's perspective on that topic? What about the teacher's? Compare that and he would get a full picture of the lesson. And the last thing, did he miss anything?

This was a method he came up to review the lesson for literature subject such as World History. If it was a science like math, then the review method would be a little different. But overall, those methods had served him well for years.

after one hour, Nariyuki stopped his review and decided that it was enough for today. After all, he still had something he needed to do for his family and that was grocery shopping.

So he went to the market district and bought the ingredients that her sister had written down on a paper. He bought cabbages and on the vegetable shop that her sister wrote because she said that you could haggle the price down if you praise the owner's flowerbed. Then he bought eggs from another shop that her sister wrote for the same reason. Another shop for another ingredient and so on.

Without him ever realizing it, her sister had become so reliable.

Suddenly the weather changed. From sunny that it was before into sudden heavy downpour.

With a heavy heart, Nariyuki had to take shelter in the front of a nearby convenience store.

He sighed when the rain had no sign of stopping anytime soon. He had to wait for a little while before his family could eat dinner. Looking inside the convenience store from outside, there were several discounts on certain items. Nariyuki checked his wallet to see if he had any money left.

"Lucky," he muttered to himself when there was money still left. Not too much amount, but enough to buy the discounted mushroom for his siblings.

So Nariyuki entered the convenience store and headed for the items. When he finished paying for the mushrooms, he exited the convenience store, but couldn't advance because the rain still hadn't stopped. In fact, the rain was heavier than it was before he bought the mushroom.

"I'm sorry, Hazuki, Kazuki, you still have to wait for me," Nariyuki sighed, lamenting the fact that his siblings would be hungry if he didn't come home soon.

To kill time, Nariyuki's eyes wandered around to see if he could spot another good bargain. But no, the good bargain was only for the mushrooms. And besides, his wallet has no money left for him to buy anything.

"Come on, rain, why don't you stop?" Nariyuki murmured to himself when he realized that the rain won't stop anytime soon even after he killed time. But the rain didn't answer. It only poured down the water harder and faster.

The door to the convenience store besides him was opened. Nariyuki who had nothing to do turned his attention from the rain towards it. From inside came a woman in a tracksuit. Her hand was gripping three big plastic bags and there was a sign of a struggle when she carried the bags.

Reflexively, Nariyuki tried to help.

"Ah... thank you," the woman said to him.

"It's okay, it's okay," Nariyuki replied after he helped the woman carrying the bags from the door to the terrace. "Huh? Kirisu-sensei?"

The woman turned her heads when Nariyuki called her name. "You are... 2-B's Yuiga-kun, correct?"

It was indeed Kirisu-sensei from his school. But seeing her with a casual appearance like this, you wouldn't believe that she was a prim and proper teacher infamous for her cold personality.

"What are you looking at me for?"

Nariyuki shook his head, "Nothing. But usually, you're prim and proper so it's weird to see you casually like this."

Kirisu-sensei winced when he said that. "Blunder. I didn't expect to see Yuiga-kun here when I have hidden it from others for so long..."

"Me too, Sensei. I didn't expect to wait for the rain to stop leads me to meet you," Nariyuki scratched his head with a sheepish smile on his face.

"So you're waiting for the rain, Yuiga-kun?"

"Yeah... I hope it will stop soon because my younger siblings couldn't eat their dinner when the ingredients are still with me here," Nariyuki pointed to the bags he himself carried.

"If I recall, this convenience store is selling umbrellas. Why didn't you buy it?"

"It does?! I blew all my money left for buying the mushrooms for my siblings..."

Now Nariyuki kinda regretted his decision to spend all his money on the mushrooms. Sorry, Hazuki, Kazuki.

"Sigh," the woman beside him sighed. "Wait here for a while," she said to him and then entered the convenience store again. He wondered what was that for.

Five minutes later, Kirisu-sensei exited the convenience store with an unused umbrella on her hand.

"Disappointment. The convenience store only has one umbrella left. You can take this, Yuiga-kun," she handed the umbrella towards Nariyuki.

"Eh, Sensei, I couldn't..."

"I insist, Yuiga-kun. It is my duty as a teacher to help my student, and this is just one of the way I can help you."

Nariyuki was taken aback by the sheer seriousness of Kirisu-sensei's response. She really cared for her students. With this, he really couldn't see why people were calling Kirisu-sensei with titles such as Ice Queen or other things.

"Thank you so much, Sensei!"

Nariyuki opened the umbrella and was about to go home when he realized that Kirisu-sensei was still standing outside the convenience store and did not open her own umbrella.

"Sensei? Don't you bring your umbrella with you?" He asked Kirisu-sensei who just avoided looking at him because of the red hue on her cheek.

"Careless. I forgot to bring my own umbrella," she mumbled softly but was still enough for Nariyuki to hear it.

Ah, so that was why Kirisu-sensei looked disappointed when the convenience store only had one umbrella left.

"You're surprisingly clumsy, aren't you, Sensei?"

"Do you want me to take back that umbrella?" Suddenly Kirisu-sensei looked so menacing that Nariyuki was afraid to look at her face. Now he understood why people were calling her Ice Queen!

"Um, Kirisu-sensei. I'd feel bad if I leave you here with an umbrella given by yours. What about we go home together? That way, you and I can arrive home without waiting for the rain to dissipate," he looked at Kirisu-sensei with a smile on his face. That was such a good idea, Nariyuki!

"Preposterous. If someone sees us then people will talk."

"Ugh," Nariyuki looked downtrodden. "I would feel bad if I leave you here like this, Sensei. It may be your duty as a teacher to help her students. But it is also my duty as the youngsters to help someone older than me."

"Did you just call me old?"

"T-That's not what I mean, Sensei!"

Suddenly her cold visage transformed into a soft smile. "Fair. Let us go home together then, Yuiga-kun."

Sensei lifted her plastic bags and joined Nariyuki under the umbrella.

Slowly, they walked towards their destination. When Kirisu-sensei told her address, it was closer than Nariyuki's house so they decided to go there first, and then Nariyuki could go home alone with the umbrella.  
"So, Sensei. Turns out your apartment is close to my home, huh? What a coincidence."

"Yes. What a coincidence," they spoke as they walked through the rain. The muddy pedestrian made them walk carefully because none of them wanted to dirty their shoes or pants.

"Speaking of which, you have so many plastic bags with you, Sensei. What did you buy at the convenience store?" Nariyuki tried to make a conversation.

"None of your concern," Kirisu-sensei replied not looking at Nariyuki.

Then Nariyuki realized that his left shoulder was wet. With a glance, he saw that he unconsciously tilted the umbrella towards Kirisu-sensei.

Suddenly the hand he used to grip the umbrella's handle was touched by Kirisu-sensei's soft and small hand.

"Gya! You scared me, Kirisu-sensei," Nariyuki said to his teacher. Then Nariyuki felt that the warmness of Kirisu-sensei's palm was still in his hand.

"Thoughtless. You keep me from being wet at the expense of your own uniform. Tomorrow is still a school day. Wetting your uniform like that would leave a bad taste at my mouth," Kirisu-sensei then pushed the umbrella so that it tilted towards Nariyuki, and by doing so, it left her right shoulders exposed to the rain.

"But your shoulder is wet, Sensei," Nariyuki looked back in concern.

"And besides," Kirisu-sensei continued. "I don't want to be responsible if you get cold."

"Sensei..."

"Oh, we've arrived," Kirisu-sensei exclaimed when they arrived in front of the apartment complex. "You can use the umbrella to go home, Yuiga-kun. See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow, Sensei," Nariyuki then went home alone. 

* * *

The next day, Nariyuki went towards the teacher's room to see Kirisu-sensei. He wanted to give back the lent umbrella that they had used yesterday. However, when he arrived at the teacher's room, there was no sign of Kirisu-sensei anywhere.

"Uh, Sensei, is Kirisu-sensei here?" He asked a teacher for Kirisu-sensei's whereabouts.

"Kirisu-sensei called in sick today. If I'm not wrong, she's having a cold. Why? Do you have business with her, Yuiga-kun?"

Nariyuki shook his head. "Nothing, Sensei. Thanks for the information."

Nariyuki made a promise to himself after leaving the teacher's room. It was because of him that Kirisu-sensei was sick. He would visit her house later. He didn't know if she had someone to take care of her or if she was living alone, but it wouldn't be a problem if he just goes there to return the umbrella, would it?


End file.
